The number of crush victims at a religious festival in Israel has risen to 44, with more than a hundred participants injured.
The celebration of the Jewish holiday of Lag Ba'Omer on Mount Meron, where Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai's grave is located, was the first mass event in Israel since the lifting of coronavirus restrictions. According to police estimates, more than a hundred thousand people attended.
Earlier, it was reported that 38 people were killed and more than 65 injured in a stampede during the religious festival of Lag Ba'Omer near Mount Meron in northern Israel.
It was initially reported that a rostrum collapsed during the festival, but it was later confirmed that the cause of the tragedy was a stampede. It was caused by people falling down one of the narrow aisles.
According to the Jerusalem Post, about 44 people, including minors, became victims of the stampede, while more than a hundred others were injured. Emergency services are still working at the site. The army has been drafted in to remove the rubble and help the victims.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident a "grave catastrophe".
Photo: from open sources